Arcade Fire, Jessie Reyez lead Juno nominees with four apiece

Arcade Fire and Jessie Reyez are the leading nominees for this year’s Juno Awards in Vancouver.

Arcade Fire is in the running for best group, single, album and alternative album.

Toronto-born Reyez is nominated for best R&B/soul recording, best music video, breakthrough artist of the year and the Juno Fan Choice award.

The late Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, the Arkells, Ruth B and Hedley have three nominations apiece.

The Juno Awards will be hosted by pop crooner Michael Buble and airs March 25 on CBC-TV.

Performers are set to include Reyez, Daniel Caeser and Hedley, while a tribute to Downie is also planned.

During Tuesday’s announcement, Junos president Allan Reid acknowledged criticisms that the Canadian music industry suffers from a lack of female representation.

“There are very important conversations happening in our world right now around gender equality and sexual harassment,” said Reid, who is also president of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

“It is critical that we work collectively as an industry to support a larger representation of women in music and encourage a culture that nurtures their participation and success.”

He said CARAS is working to open up technical career paths for women in the industry and better support artist development.

Reyez’s debut “Kiddo” was released last April and led to nominations for best new Canadian artist and fan fave video at the iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards. She closed the year with a performance on the CBC’s New Year’s Eve broadcast.

Last month she was featured by her label Universal Music Group at a pre-Grammys showcase in New York with other artists including Luis Fonsi, Logic, Migos, Julia Michaels and Kacey Musgraves.